Internet based peer-to-peer file sharing has been known for many years particularly as used for sharing music. Those skilled in the art will recognize the name NAPSTER as an online music service that used peer-to-peer music sharing amongst users. NAPSTER made a major impact on how people, especially younger people and students, used the Internet. Its technology allowed music fans to easily share MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) format song files between computers.
Prior art FIG. 1 illustrates an Internet-based peer-to-peer data sharing system 100 where a central directory service 101 is connected to all file sharing computers 105, 107 and 109 via the Internet 103. In operation, the central directory service 101 maintains a list of data files and their location which are available for sharing. If computer 105 were to contact the central directory service 101 with a request for specific data, the central directory service would search its database and direct the computer 105 to a data location if the data requested is available. For example, if the data were available on computer 107, then computer 105 would contact computer 107 via the Internet to request access to the desired data.
The disadvantage of using this type of service is that it is Internet based and is therefore dependent on availability of file sharing computers with fixed connectivity to the Internet. If a computer is not connected to the Internet, its files cannot be shared. Moreover, the Internet is a physical communication network that provides near ubiquitous access for the file sharing computers. So once connected, file sharing can occur between designated computers virtually anywhere in the industrialized world. No provision is made for file sharing devices that form short-range wireless communication networks, that have the ability to move away from or move within range of the communication network, and that can only transfer content when both the source and destination file sharing devices are within the same short-range communication network.
Thus, the need exists to provide a system and method for sharing content-based data such as music or text without the necessity of an Internet connection.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.